Government Agencies Racist by Profiling Indigenous people

Bob L. Just My OpinionOct. 13th 2014
But you are not saying who Indigenous Peoples really are: (The definition of Indigenous People is something or someone who is native to an area or who naturally belongs there. An example of Indigenous People are the Native Americans of the United States.) Now lets put credit where it be longs, Native Americans, Immigrants are the ones who forced them from their land, and now they want to say that THEY are native to this Country, so give credit to the real land lords of this Country.

Insert from article: (For a major underlying purpose of Indigenous Peoples’ Day is about rewriting the history of North America as it is taught in schools.)

Ok if you want to talk about what is taught in school, how about how the Government Took their land away from them and gave it to in coming Immigrants, and put all Indigenous people on reservations and told them to stay there, what did they do to the ones who did not honor what the Government told them to do? Why is that not being taught in school today.

How about the Trail of Tears and how the Government treated these Indigenous People as law breakers and forced them on to reservations, that was a disgrace to them, and by who, the same people who think that they belong here and believe that they deserve that status of Indigenous Peoples’, and who have been keeping the Native Americans under their thumb. So lets tell the truth of what happen to Indigenous People and how they were discriminated against, just like the blacks were discriminated against, and still discriminated against.

So if you want to teach some thing in school teach the truth not fabricated stories of what you want them to learn, tell the truth, IN SCHOOL not at HOME WORK, I thought that is where student are suppose to be taught, not at home after school in home work.

Seattle has officially supplanted Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples’ Day, to be celebrated on the second Monday in October. The change came in a ceremony that spoke of past persecution but reflected growing Indian power in these parts.

“This end of the country is strong when it comes to Indian land,” said Ken Workman, a great great great great grandson of Chief Seattle, who had been doing jury duty at the nearby King County Courthouse.

Mayor Ed Murray paid tribute to “an incredibly exciting moment” in city history, declaring: “Seattle sites on the homelands of many tribal nations.

But the Mayor also spoke of “the inundation of my office with racist e-mails” since the City Council’s unanimous decision to honor original inhabitants of the Western Hemisphere land rather than the Genoese explorer who “discovered” it.

“Today is not intended to take anything away from any other community or group in Seattle,” Murray said. “We are not removing any other designation or holiday in Seattle. We respect and honor all our city’s cultural traditions, community groups and history, including Italian Americans.”

But it would appear that Columbus will never be depicted as the brave explorer who sailed the ocean blue in 1492. For a major underlying purpose of Indigenous Peoples’ Day is about rewriting the history of North America as it is taught in schools.

“It is truly about honoring the correct and appropriate history: It is truly about correcting the curriculum that our children are taught,” said Theresa Sheldon, a director of the Tulalip Tribes.

Seattle’s socialist City Council member Kshama Sawant talked about learning of “the pain and suffering of the racism and genocide influenced on our communities,” and minorities that are still “marginalized and exploited.” She ended with a reference to Ferguson, Missouri.

Murray put it more diplomatically, speaking of “an opportunity to educate our youth and surrounding community.”

“Today’s commemoration is intended to spark a productive conversation about the contributions of indigenous peoples and, most importantly, their continued involvement in the cultural fabric of our community,” he said.

There is history to be taught, some of it recent. Tribal rights were, in the 1960′s and 1970′s, a marquee civil rights cause in the Northwest.

United Indians of All Tribes activists went over the fence at Fort Lawton in 1970 to claim land that is today the Daybreak Star Indian Cultural Center. Arrests of Native Americans for fishing on the Nisqually River drew support from such actors as Marlon Brando and Jane Fonda.

Indian country has experienced great victories, beginning with the 1974 Boldt decision that gave treaty Indians the right to take up to 50 percent of the harvestable salmon catch in Puget Sound waters. A racist reaction was fanned by some state politicians. But tribes became — and remain — major players in fisheries management.

The gaming industry has brought major prosperity to some tribes. Representatives from the Tulalips and Muckleshoots were at the table last November when President Obama held a $17,900-a-person fundraiser at a North Seattle home.

Brian Cladoosby, the Swinomish tribal chairman, serves as president of the National Congress of American Indians and has been guest at a White House State Dinner. W. Ron Allen, Jamestown S’Kallam tribal chairman, is a former president of the NCAI.

Nonetheless, pockets of urban Indian poverty remain, as well as fissures between tribes.

Of the Indigenous Peoples’ Day ceremony, Workman said, “It brings us all together and that is what is important to us.”

Workman brought out a friend, Nahaan, a Tlingit activist, singer, composer and tattoo artist, born in Seattle but living until recently in Southeast Alaska. Nahaan, who uses a single name, as fought for seven years to change Columbus Day.

The two men were recently in a canoe. Workman spoke of the ancestral fear of Tlingit raiding parties that would kidnap Puget Sound-area Indians and carry them north as slaves. Nahaan replied by citing the Tlingits’ fears of Indians from the south.

“This ceremony says we are not so much in disputes anymore,” Workman said. “Sure there are disputes, but those are for the lawyers. The sounds you hear in this room, the drums that you hear, those are us — all of us.”

An interesting conciliatory note came from Sawant, whose remarks about Columbus last week infuriated some Italian-American groups.

“It is not against Italian Americans: Nothing could be further from the truth,” she said.

Sawant proposed that the city create an “Italian American Heritage Day” honoring those Italians who have committed “acts of social justice.”